Eduardo Kac :: July 29, 2009; 6:00 pm :: The Project Room for New Media, Chelsea Art Museum (CAM), 556 West 22nd Street, New York City .

Eduardo Kac, a Brazilian-born Chicago-based pioneer of telepresence and bio art, is internationally known for his 1999 groundbreaking transgenic artwork “Genesis”, and “GFP Bunny, Alba”, the fluorescent green rabbit that attracted global attention in 2000.

Kac will talk about his new transgenic work Natural History of the Enigma has, a plantimal that is a genetically-engineered flower hybrid of the artist and Petunia. The work is a poetic reflection on the contiguity of life between different species. In the context of the celebration of man’s first walk on the moon 40 years ago, the philosophy of the plantimal further stimulates the imagination to ponder what other life forms might exist or be created beyond earth. Kac will also discuss his video poem, “Reversed Mirror”, on view in The Project Room for New Media until August 8.

Natural History of the Enigma has received the Golden Nica 2009 - the highest award given at the Prix Ars Electronica, the world’s premier cyberarts competition. Held annually by Ars Electronica, the international center for digital art and media culture in Linz, Austria, it is a barometer of the trends in media art.